Thursday, June 6, 2013

Puntis denisonii:Miss kerala

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Common Name: Denison Barb, Bleeding Eye barb,
                    
Red-Lined Torpedo barb,rose line shark 

Family:Cyprinidae

Genus:Puntis

Species:P.denisonii



Physical Description: Small mouths. Streamlined and bullet shaped with shimmering color of gold, green, yellow, red and black. A horizontal black stripe from nose, across the eyes to base of tail, another horizontal stripe on top of this of red extending only midway with an occasional yellow just in between and  green-gold above this. The dorsal fin is touched with red and ends transparent with a yellow and black short stripe just before the tips. The underside is a soft Off-white. The fish attains a maximum length of 15 cm.


Habitat
Red line torpedo bard natively live in sub tropical climate in water with a 6.8 pH, a water hardness of 5-25 dGh and a temperature range of 65-79 °F. It lives in fast flowing highly Oxygenated Rivers and loves to swim against the flow in tanks with high flow from power heads.
It is a rare ornamental fish species, popularly called Miss Kerala, found in the Western Ghats, Although the government had banned the illegal collection of the fish, Red Lined Torpedo Barb (Puntius denisonii), in 1999. The eight rivers of the Kerala state including the Pampa, Achankovil, Chalakkudi, Chaliar, Manimala, Periyar and Bhararthappuzha,which are home to Miss Kerala, Most of the ones seen in the trade today originated from the Kozhikode Provenance of Kerala.
Puntis denisonii
Spawining:
Spawning of P. denisonni occurs during the months of November to April attains the sexual maturity in the first years of its life. A total ban should be put to destructive fishing practices and low enforcement enhanced, during the spawning season will reduce the threats to the species. As an ex-situ conservation practices, development of artificial breeding of the species have also been standardized  by college of Fisheries Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean studies(KUFOS) Kerala, India under Marine products Export Development Authority Project .


Conservations: The fish was declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, But as the demand for it is rising in the International market many continue to export it from the northern Districts of the state..The government of Kerala in Indian has banned fishing foe the endangered barb Puntius denisonii. Fortunatly, increasing numbers of P.denisonii are now being breed in captivity for ornamental fish trade, both India and elsewhere.  
Success:
 It was a major export revenue earner for the state in the ornamental fish export sector, with each of these beauties ranking in at least Rs.1.500.However, the export spree and absence of efforts at conservation led to the fish turning an endangered species. Now, even as Kerala is struggling to artificially breed the Tropical barb, United Kingdom’s Chester Zoo has successfully achieved the goal. Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to be endanger in similar efforts. But according to K.Krishnakumar, Research Associate with Bangalore based Ashoka Trust for research in Ecology and Environment (AT REE), there is more hope for Kerala from the success of two Chennai Based fish lovers, Rabi Venkatesh and Murali
The duo bought a few Miss Kerala fish from Kerala and after acclimatizing them to Chennai. Injected hormones and allowed them to breed in a tank specially made for the purpose.The result, Mr. Kishnakumar says was 600 eggs in six hours. These were divided into two groups and in 15 hundreds of Miss Kerala These were divided into two groups and in 15 days of Miss Kerala progenies were swimming around in the tank (Hindu Daily,Thurdsay.Oct16,2008)

Miss Kerala